General Santos City Gov’t Warns Folks vs Scammers Posing as Mayor Rivera

General Santos City — The city government has warned residents and business establishments here on the emergence these past days of bogus transactions involving individuals who were using the name of City Mayor Ronnel Rivera.

Voltaire Tiu, chief of staff of the City Mayor’s Office (CMO), said Thursday they have received a number of complaints and reports about some persons who were duping local residents and businesses by either posing as the mayor or a representative of his office.

He said “scam artists” would usually call their victims and make various transactions in the name of the mayor.

“The caller would introduce himself/herself as either the city mayor himself or a representative of the CMO,” he said.

The transactions include mobile phone reloading, hotel reservations, and take-out orders from food establishments, he said.

Tiu said CMO staff members earlier received calls from various business establishments to verify the transactions.

He said there were some establishments who gave in to the transactions, thinking it was really the mayor who was making them.

The official cited the case of a cellphone store that was supposedly called by the “mayor” to order a mobile phone with load credits.

“The scammer uses two numbers: 09070762532 and 09753805044,” he said.

Tiu clarified that standard processes are strictly followed in official transactions involving the CMO.

He urged residents and business establishments to immediately report the fraudulent activities to their office. (PNA) LAP/AVE